As it’s the last year of my term and it’s been a while since 29-year-old me was sworn in as the youngest mayor in Braddock History. I’ll never forget being whisked into council chambers and being briefed about all things Braddock Affairs. There was an array of conversations all at once. The police department oversaw…
Category: Life Happens
May Your Coffee Be Strong and Your Patience Be Stronger
With chaos comes clarity or the chaos wasn’t worth it. When the pandemic first started, the days felt like weeks and weeks felt like months. Here we are more than a year in and days seem like seconds, my to-do list grows as the annoying weeds in my backyard that Mother Nature keeps watering. Personally,…
Two Distant Strangers
Today a cop was charged with manslaughter for killing a black man in broad daylight in front of a crowd. It may be the closest thing to justice we will see as accountability has been far in between. Recently, I watched a Netflix movie titled Two Distant Strangers about a guy who wakes up at…
Lead By Example: Why I Got Vaccinated
“Get last-minute vaccine appointment,” wasn’t in my Google Calendar yesterday but when I got the call to be in the Southside within an hour, I dropped everything and went. I almost forgot I had added myself to a waitlist that calls people when others cancel their appointments last minute. This keeps doctors from wasting a…
Don’t Let Past Luggage Sink Your Current Relationship
I love the ship metaphor for relationships. If both parties are working together to keep the ship afloat it’s smooth(ish) sailing (you can’t control the weather). If not, you’re going to sink. It may not be as fast as the Titanic but it’s inevitable. Finishing my first poetry book Return to Sender was the closure…
Emotional Maturity: Stop Attending Every Circus You’re Invited to
Most of the time I was the only girl among four brothers. Crying and whining wasn’t really tolerated so I learned to adapt. I don’t know what it is or where it came from but the ability to pack my emotions away became second nature as if I was taking vacations left and right. The…
Not to Burst Your Bubble: Your Pandemic Pod is Way Too Big
You know how they say that every time you have sex with a new person you’ve had sex with everyone they’ve had sex with and so on and so forth? Let’s think of our pandemic pods as so. If you’re in America, there’s a high probability that your pod has burst long ago. Someone in…
We Are Never Getting Back Together
“The light at the end of the tunnel” “Together alone” “Stay in your bubble” If I never hear some of these phrases again, I’ll be satisfied. After 2020 and 2021 I may not want to blow bubbles, ride in tunnels, or even hear High School Musical’s “We’re All in This Together.” The truth of the…
Empathy, Toxic Ships, and How America Creates its Own Villains
“Sometimes you gotta care for the Cain and sometimes you gotta care for the Abel.” Justdae One morning I woke up and that’s the only line I remembered from a dream and I woke up and jotted it down to dissect later. Growing up my mom didn’t force any kind of religion on us as…
So You Want to Run for Local Office?
I remember volunteering with the teens at The Braddock Youth Project. I wasn’t supposed to be there but a few days before I was to report to my Keys Service Corps AmeriCorps assignment at Braddock Borough Building I was asked to change course. “We need more people at BYP to mentor the youth.” In high…
OMG It's Just Daé 